1.1 Introduction
Fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics are reshaping
the environment of the towns and cities in Europe. The environment of cities becomes
increasingly competitive and complex and they need to anticipate and respond quickly to
opportunities and threats that influence their position structurally. The cities themselves
develop policy measures to meet the challenges, but at the same time higher layers of
government pursue policies that influence the position of the cities. National policies in
all member states play a critical role in shaping the social, economic and political
conditions of cities throughout the European Union. The national government draws up
the financial and policy framework in which the cities design their own policies, and also
formulates its own policies that affect the position of cities.
This paper is based on the results of an international comparative study carried out to
present the state of the art concerning the explicit national urban policy1 in the member
states of the European Union. However, the scope is not limited to explicit national urban
policy alone and stretches to national policy, as far as it makes a substantial impact on the
development of the cities. The investigation is guided by four central questions:
1. what is the urban development pattern in the member state?
2. what are the administrative and financial relations between the national authorities
and the city?
3. what do national authorities consider to be main issues for, and challenges to their
cities?
4. how does the national policy of the member states respond to these issues and
challenges?
The research results obtained serve as input for a comparative analysis of the experiences
in the member states. What are the differences, similarities, challenges and trends in the
national urban policies in the European Union?
In this part 1 (research framework) some main features of urban dynamics in Europe are
discussed, some clarifying words are devoted to the notion ‘urban policy’ and a
framework for national policy responses to urban issues is presented. Part 2 is a general
synthesis derived from the main findings of fifteen national reports that have been
produced by 'domestic' experts who contributed to this comparative investigation by
producing a national report on the topic of national urban policy2. Finally, part 3
summarizes the main findings.
1.2 The changing face of urban Europe
1 The term ‘national urban policy’ refers to policies that affect the cities knowingly and directly.
2 The contibutors are Michael J. Bannon, Guido De Brabander, Ilaria Bramezza, Alvaro Domingues, K.
Efthimiou, Mary Grier, Eero Holstila, Klaus R. Kunzmann, Alberto Laplaine Guimarais, Christian W.
Matthiessen, Oriol Nel.lo, Jan-Evert Nilsson, Michael Parkinson, Nuno Portas, T. Psihogios, Herbert
Purschke and Alain Sallez.